I wish you therefore to take the skins, and to offer
them to some of the trappers you will not fail to meet below in
exchange for a few traps, and to send the same into the Pawnee village
in my name. Be careful to have my mark painted on them; a letter N,
with a hound's ear, and the lock of a rifle. There is no Red-skin who
will then dispute my right. For all which trouble I have little more
to offer than my thanks, unless my friend, the bee-hunter here, will
accept of the racoon, and take on himself the special charge of the
whole matter."
"If I do, may I b--!" The mouth of Paul was stopped by the hand of
Ellen, and he was obliged to swallow the rest of the sentence, which
he did with a species of emotion that bore no slight resemblance to
the process of strangulation.
"Well, well," returned the old man, meekly; "I hope there is no heavy
offence in the offer. I know that the skin of a racoon is of small
price, but then it was no mighty labour that I asked in return."
"You entirely mistake the meaning of our friend," interrupted
Middleton, who observed, that the bee-hunter was looking in every
direction but the right one, and that he was utterly unable to make
his own vindication.
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